I stopped by sculptor/photographer and Professor Doug Calisch’s Split Cedar Studios in rural Montgomery County to watch the artist prepare for his show—“The Biography of Objects”—which opens at Indianapolis’ 924 Gallery on February 4.

He explained his artistic process to art minor Drew Palmer ’11, who was visiting the studio to shoot video for a feature on Calisch the Gallery is producing for the show:

“I find materials and construct and put together pieces based on those found and altered materials. I’m not afraid to change things that I find, but there is a sense of repurposing objects, recycling, and finding cool things that other people have discarded and finding ways to use them in my work.

“I used to make everything from scratch. Then I realized there’s a neater history in the objects I find. For example, here’s an old level I found that someone had used for decades in their tool shop, and here I am repurposing that making it part of a work of art. I have no idea where this thing came from originally, but, man, it’s got so much rich history that goes beyond my involvement with the material. So I start with these old objects that bring their own history to the piece.”